Now I'd like to share some reasearch i just made related to Arma 3 rifles performance.

Yes i did some thorough analysis on the precision & accuracy of Arma 3 Rifles (vanilla & mods). I tried to measure their performance by analyzing their shot-group (bullet dispersion) just like real snipers determine the accuracy of their guns.

I shot 40-shot group at their zero range (100 m) and 40-shot group at their maximum effective range. Then i calculated the analysis using a Gun Precision Calculator called "TARAN" to determine the in-game rifle's true precision & accuracy. Then I compared the in-game precision to real-life precision to see if the in-game rifles are overpowered or not.

it's a non-commercial channel exclusively all about Arma 3 ACE3 Sniper videos.
i always put all the complete weapon specification & ballistics analysis in the video description.
i hope you all can learn long range precision shooting from that channel.

Please share all the knowledge with other!!! coz knowing is half the battle ;)

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I will release an update for the mod on the following days and I will tune dispersion slightly down to reach your spot on standards.

For any possible tests one may come to do in the future, they should use DGR ammo with DGR rifles (I think you already do that right?), just to avoid false positives and false negatives. Vanilla or ACE ammo may have higher or lower velocities, which affects vertical dispersion.

Also notice that the game's engine adds a hardcoded randomness to bullets leaving the muzzle. We modders have no control over it. Anyone out there knows how to edit this parameter?

A2 had a dispersion parameter in ammo and another dispersion parameter in rifle, both summing to each other but, A3 has it only on the rifle.

Also, be aware that, when ACE Advanced Ballistics module is active, bullets should suffer a random dispersion when entering the transonic region (408m/s). Problem is that many mods are not using this parameter or use it a multiplier by 1 while DGR uses it as a multiplier by 0.5 for example. So, expect extra dispersion in extended range when using DGR ammo, just like in real life. Some calibers like the .408 have lower transonic dispersion because it was made for extended range.

DGR rifles may not have exactly the same twist rate and barrel length as your real life references so, a comparison to real life ones may loose a bit of meaning but, it still remains very interesting indeed. I have used some references of the civilian market but, if you think something is very off then, just let me know.

We may have some accuracy error (not precision error) because of the prone shooting stance. It means that, when we are prone, the target's bull's eye is a bit above us (considering the dummy is on the same plane, like making the test on Altis salt plains or a runway), causing the shot to hit a bit high. It is not a problem when we are calculating shot groups (precision) though.

We are actually still working on some very minor things. But the major things are all in 3.11
With the new fixes you should recheck everything that showed accuracy problems. That might be fixed now.

We have a completly new way of measuring the scope and rail height which is as precise as you can possibly get. Before we were just guessing. All ACE configs and compats supplied by ACE were updated using the new method. So I'm not sure if Dagger Mod needs updating.@quickdagger If you want advice on that message me here on ask on ACE Slack.

I really hope someday ACE3 will be able to include all the ballistic aspects to improve the realism of its long range shooting ^_^ i'd like to share a lil bit of my knowledge about Long Range Shooting. Hopefuly this can be a useful feedback for ACE3 team & Arma devs....And hopefully this can be implemented into Arma 3 or their future installment.....

As far as i know:

There are 2 insanely important things in Long Range Precision Shooting world, which are the Precison & Accuracy!

In reality, PRECISION(shot dispersion/shot group size) will be determined by these 4 INTERNAL BALLISTIC aspects:

1. Shooter Precision --> Stability & Consistency of the shooter when pulling the trigger & delivering the shot, in order to achieve Natural point of aim!

In reality, ACCURACY(The trueness & stability of the curve of the projectile trajectory! or The discrepancy between Point of Aim and Point of Impact) will be determined by these 3 EXTERNAL BALLISTIC aspects:

1. Target Data

- Target Range

- Target Movement Speed

- Angle of Firing --> less bullet drop when you’re shooting at an angle

- Latitude & Azimuth --> for calculating Coriolis Effect

- Wind Direction & Wind Speed --> Uprange Wind & Downrange Wind

2. Atmospheric Data

- Air Pressure --> The thicker the air (higher air pressure), the more your bullet will drop. The thinner the air (lower air pressure), the less your bullet will drop.

- Air Temperature --> The cooler the air, the more your bullet will drop. The hotter the air, the less your bullet will drop. Air temperature also greatly affects the Internal Ballistics (it affects powder burn rate which shifts your Muzzle Velocity)

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Checking the configs is just a reference, but imho not the whole thing.

It is not because it is in the configs that it will happen as our interpretation of the configs. I have many examples about that:

1) Vanilla's zero range in the configs is not the same zero range in game, for many rifles.

2) You expect gravity = 9.81 to produce realistic results but it doesn't, because of frame rate and simulation step.

3) If you shoot straight up, bullets will not decelerate. At least on previous versions.

I highly encourage testers to do empiric tests, like the ones you have done, because this is the only way to find out the situations where the configs don't work as expected. And then, use those experiments to suggest fixes, which is what we are doing at ACE.

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1) Vanilla's zero range in the configs is not the same zero range in game, for many rifles.

For example? The only case where zero range is not like in the weapon config is when there is a scope mounted with different zero values (which is in turn defined in the scope's config class). So this seems to be just a lack of understanding as far as i can judge.

When dealing with 3rd party ballistics code, and the creators do not validate it properly, then i guess beeing carefull about config values not having effects one would expect is true. But for vanilla this is generally not the case (some oddities exist however). Even so, you only have to validate the config parameter once. You don't have to test 5 different weapons to make sure it works as you expect. You only need 1 test and based on that can deduct what the other weapons do based on their config parameter differences.

Quote

But to be perfectly honest, i really don't know how to look up the weapon configuration values

How can i do that? :/

in Eden Editor, there is a configViewer /cfgViewer button where you can browse all ingame config classes (also in ESC menue, when debug console is activated). Alternatively you can download an all-in-one config text file (a single textfile with all config entries of the game compiled into one) - makes searching for a specific class easier because you can use standard text-editors search functions (notepad++ etc). https://forums.bistudio.com/forums/topic/191737-updated-all-in-one-config-dumps/

To learn about the config parameters you can look into the Biki (e.g. https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgWeapons_Config_Reference ) - that said, not all parameters are written down in the biki, because BIS themself did not update it in the past. Newer things they write down, but older stuff not so much. The Arma 3 Samples (on Steam tools) have configs with commentary what stuff does as well.

1

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For example? The only case where zero range is not like in the weapon config is when there is a scope mounted with different zero values (which is in turn defined in the scope's config class). So this seems to be just a lack of understanding as far as i can judge.

Really? :/ I mount the vanilla scope on vanilla rifles and still they don't zero perfectly :( Do they have different zero values?

As Dagger said, I prefer doing empiric tests because it's the only way to find out the real situations :) I know It sounds troublesome but it feels awesome :D

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Outstanding submission, mate. I have been looking for the most realistic sniper experience on the web.....surely this is it. How do I get involved.....just want to spend some placid time plinking? Also.....has anyone ever created an online "Camp Perry" or Wimbledon Cup server/competition?

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2) You expect gravity = 9.81 to produce realistic results but it doesn't, because of frame rate and simulation step.

I would be very surprised if the physics calculations are updated by variable framerate, in fact I don't believe that. Visual updates are updated with each frame, but calculations should be done with fixed update determined by delta time method. Else all physics would be completely broken.

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Outstanding submission, mate. I have been looking for the most realistic sniper experience on the web.....surely this is it. How do I get involved.....just want to spend some placid time plinking? Also.....has anyone ever created an online "Camp Perry" or Wimbledon Cup server/competition?

Omfg mate, I would really love to see Wimbledon Cup in Arma Community! ^_^ That would be insanely awesome! \m/

Can anybody pass on this suggestion to the BI Devs? Let's make this happen!

Count me in, buddy! We shall see who's the best marksman in this simulator ;)

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I have started a multiplayer's world's sniper competition mission but i gave up. I don't want to invest time on mission creation but I can share my progress with anyone willing to take an effort on it.

I think it deserves some scripting like accounting points for every range, some travel between ranges, etc.